Collecting a whole deck of cards (by finding them on the street)
Picking things up in the street has been a habit since I was a child. I always had pockets full of nuts and bolts and other interesting bits and bobs I’d collected. When I started compiling sketch books for visual research around 2008/9 a lot of found objects ended up in there, with the occasional playing card. Since 2021 I have been collecting playing cards more deliberately, logging the date and location of discovery. It’s a fun and quite silly project, and I enjoy the ridiculousness of tracking it in a spreadsheet. I’ve just set up a proper page for the project, here, which includes my rules for the game.
Each time I add a card to the collection I take a photo of it too. And I have been posting these on instagram. I’m posting now as I plan to shift this over to my blog instead – makes much more sense to keep the archive in one place on the website. In future I’ll do a quick post here whenever I get a new card – typically it’s every few months, so these posts won’t swamp the feed.
The time in between each finding is quite interesting to me. Estimating at an average of about three months between each allows me to make a guess of how long this process might take. The project is a classic example of the “coupon collector’s problem” as explained really well by this Stand Up Maths video. The problem is that the probability of finding a card that you actually need goes down with each card added to the collection. So, the likelihood of picking up a card only to find it’s a duplicate. Using the maths from Matt’s video I calculated I should have completed the collection in about 25 years. So, when I’m in my mid 60s. This is very much a long-term project.
Graham Dunning 
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Cathy Butterworth did this in Liverpool pre-Covid and managed to get the complete set in a lot less time than 25 years, exhibiting them at venue called The Gallery in the city (now closed). The weird thing is when you find a Tarot card, which I have done, and people read all sorts of nonsense into it. Happy hunting
Ah hadn’t heard about Cathy’s project. I know a couple of other people who have large collections too – part of the reason I’m doing it for fun rather than something I’d consider “an artwork” really.
I have a friend who knows about tarot who has drawn parallels with some of the playing cards I’ve found – feels like a whole different ballgame to me really.
Thanks!